U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,245 discloses and claims a process for the preparation of tetrafluoroethylene which comprises feeding a saturated perfluorocarbon to a continuous electric arc, passing the emerging gaseous product through a carbon bed at a temperature of 2700.degree. C. to 2000.degree. C., and thereafter quenching the resulting gaseous reaction product to a temperature below 500.degree. C. in less than one second.
This process is limited to saturated perfluorocarbons such as tetrafluoromethane and hexafluoroethane.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,546 discloses and claims a process for the pyrolysis of fluoroform by contacting the same in a nitrogen plasma jet at a temperature in the approximate range 1000.degree. to 2000.degree. F. for a contact time of 0.0001 to 10 seconds producing a reaction effluent containing trifluoroacetonitrile, tetrafluoromethane, hexafluoroethane, tetrafluoroethene, and hexafluoropropene.
In the Example of the above patent the yield of tetrafluoroethylene is only 12.4 mole %. In the process of the instant invention a typical yield of tetrafluoroethylene is &gt;60%.